The director of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival’s “Centrepiece Gala” — Children 404 — is either going to introduce his new documentary in Vancouver Aug. 21 or in jail in Russia. Askold Kurov (who directed the movie with Pavel Loparev) is awaiting the verdict on whether his film about an anonymous online forum for young Russians struggling with the country’s anti-homosexuality laws contravenes those laws.

“The filmmaker is currently awaiting trial and their ministry of culture will decide if making this documentary has violated their anti-propaganda law,” festival programmer Shana Myara told The Sun. The activist who started the website also awaits trial.

Myara says Kurov told her via Skype that if he’s found guilty, the most likely punishment is a fine — but anything is possible, including community service, hard labour or jail time (if the film is deemed to give offence to religious people, which was what happened to the music group Pussy Riot).

The two Russian films featured at this year’s festival under the banner of “By Queer Russia, With Love” are a sobering reminder of why events like Vancouver’s Queer Film Festival matter.

“Twenty-six years presenting queer films and it’s pretty extraordinary how far we’ve come,” says Myara. “We can look back over the history of our festival and see so many of the gains we’ve made in our society. We’re now legally able to get married in Canada and in many parts of the world. The HIV crisis is no longer a death sentence. And we can see through the films some of the amazing changes that we are taking advantage of and maybe, in some ways, taking for granted in Canada. And some of those gains rolled completely backwards in Russia last year.”

This year’s festival features more than 80 films from 11 countries.

Here are five of the fest’s best bets.

Children 404 (Aug. 21 at the Vancouver Playhouse). “It’s a documentary about an online forum that was created for youth to come together and talk to one another anonymously,” says Myara, “and it’s really a lifeline in that country where being gay and being out suddenly have the weight of the state pushed against it.”

Winter Journey (Aug. 23 at Cineplex Odeon International Village). The fest’s other Russian movie — the fictional story of an opera singer who falls for a street thug — was made with the full support of Russia’s ministry of culture before homosexuality became taboo. “This film shows how quickly things changed in that country,” says Myara. “It doesn’t screen in Russia any more. It would probably violate its own propaganda laws.”

Drunktown’s Finest (Aug. 17, Cineplex Odeon International Village). In 1987 the ABC-TV news series 20/20 visited director Sydney Freeland’s hometown and declared it “Drunk Town, USA.” Freeland (the festival’s “spotlight director”) set out to examine her hometown through her own filters. “She wanted to create a film that showed her town with much more love and nuance,” says Myara. “It explores the challenges of three Navajo people living on reservation, one of whom is a transgender woman played by transgender actress Carmen Moore. It’s pushing the envelope around discussion of gender ideas and also indigenous right and indigenous communities with a queer lens.”

Appropriate Behaviour (Aug. 15 at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Performing Arts and Aug. 21 at Cineplex Odeon International Village) is a comedy about growing up as a bisexual Persian-American, written by and starring Desiree Akhavan (a featured guest at the festival). “She’s this kind of sparkly ‘it girl’ who’s going to be on (HBO’s) Girls next season. She came up through this beloved web series called The Slope, which she created with her ex-girlfriend and it became this big hit. They called themselves ‘The Superficial Homophobic Lesbians.’”

Tru Love (Aug. 22, at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts) is a comic love triangle about a lesbian couple whose breakup gets complicated when one of the women falls for her ex’s mom. “It’s one of those films that really celebrates living in the moment and not letting societal norms or expectations guide you past your own heart and temptations and it’s hilarious,” says Myara. Toronto-based writer-director Kate Johnston — who started her theatre career in Vancouver and will attend the screening — partnered with Shauna MacDonald to tell the story. “I can’t imagine any Queer film festival where it won’t be appearing. It’s a real success story.”

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Vancouver Queer Film Festival marks 26 years, while some nations discriminate

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